Modern transportation device such as motor vehicles are equipped with an increasing number of electronic components, each being provided with a separate control unit. The control units must be programmed appropriately for each individual transportation device type, its equipment, and possibly also the other used components, and provided with data (e.g., software), i.e., set up or also populated. To do so, the individual control units have to be connected to a data source, such as an external diagnostic device, and the appropriate programming data must then be selected and imported. Furthermore, there are transportation device where all control units are connected via a shared communications bus, such as a CAN bus (Controller Area Network bus), which has a central interface, e.g., a CAN diagnosis terminal, in order to be able to communicate with external units. If the control units are set up via the interface and the communications bus, the required data must likewise be individually selected and transferred to the corresponding control units.
The first setup of the control units or the data input (programming) usually takes place during the production of the transportation device. Mobile computers are normally used for this purpose, which copy the required data to the individual control units of the transportation device, for instance directly via an OBD cable (on-board diagnosis). These programming data may exist on the mobile computer or be transmitted to it during the setup operation via a communications link. This may be done via cables or in a wireless manner, e.g., via WLAN.
It is disadvantageous here that the connection of the mobile computer to the interface of the transportation device or the communications link to the mobile computer must be maintained for the duration of the setup, until the setup has been completed; incomplete programming data must be input retroactively at a later date, which entails additional work and expense. The duration of the setup not only depends on the quantity of the programming data but also on the data transmission rates of the communications bus or the individual control units. However, these control units are configured for the data quantities of their regular operation and less so for the one-time initial setup procedure, which makes the setup last longer. The process of the setup may therefore interfere with the production sequences, for instance by the presence of the mobile computer and possibly its cable link, especially across multiple production steps. Moreover, wireless communication links may have only limited ranges and data rates within a production lane, for example. In addition, the more data have to be transmitted, i.e., the longer each setup takes and necessitates the presence of a mobile computer, the greater the number of required mobile computers. They not only have to be purchased, but serviced as well. As the complexity of the electronic components of the transportation device in the form of ever more complicated control units increases, the cost of the setup and thus the number of mobile computers rises as well. Increases in the electronics and their complexity and performance in the transportation device result in delays in the current methods for setting up the control units, or in higher costs in the production. Measures aimed at using more mobile computers, which are used for longer periods of time for setting up a product, or measures aimed at increasing the data transmission rates between the mobile computer and the transportation device in order to transfer more data in less time solve these problems only partly and have their limits as well.
DE 101 52 508 A1 relates to a method for activating a system having a time-controlled communications system for controlling or regulating operational sequences in a motor vehicle. For control units having the same structure and identical programming, such as the electromechanical brake (EMB), which has one control unit for each wheel, the part of the programming that is the same for all control units and is required for the time-controlled communication may be stored in a central memory and transmitted, i.e., copied, from there to a volatile memory of the individual control units via the time-controlled communications system when the system is activated. For a secure and reliable activation, the system is first switched on and any one of the identical control units is temporarily operated as the master control unit that coordinates the transmission of the particular required data that are identical for all control units from a central memory of one of the control units to all control units.
It is an object of the present invention to remedy the above-mentioned disadvantages. More specifically, a method for accelerating or simplifying the setup and/or updating of control units for a transportation device is to be provided. The control unit for a transportation device in particular may already be connected in the transportation device (in the sense of a “control unit of a transportation device”).